User:Lukepf04

Luke Farrell

Emperor of Session 2 Saratoga Springs 2017

• 13.2 SHD: UNAG
• 14.2 SAR: POLY
• 15.2 SAR: LOGC
• 16.2 SAR: MICO
• 17.2 SAR: MIND

I like you. I love you. I CTY you.

A Little Bit About Me

Hi. As you probably guessed it, my name is Luke. I have been going to CTY for three years now and it has been a great experience. I was at Mt. Holyoke for Baby CTY in 2013 and have gone to Skidmore in Saratoga Springs for the last two. I have had a lot of fun in my past years and why not I explain why. Let's start with Mt. Holyoke.

Baby CTY at Mount Holyoke

Course: United Nations and Advanced Geography: UNAG

Instructors: Elyse and Katy (TA)

Hallmates: Kyle, Nate, Nick, Tony, Jihoon, Mike, Jake, Daniel and Kevin

RA: Andrew

As my first year at CTY like many kids I was nervous. Being away from my parents for three weeks seemed like a good thing, but it was scary at first for me. Below are the highlights and memories of my first year at CTY.

UNAG

UNAG was an eventful course to start off my CTY journey. Elise and Katy had been a fantastic duo together along with my crazy classmates. In the class, UN siulations are done on real world topics and situations. My countries included Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and [entrer other country]. One great thing was Katy would grab copies of the New York Times for everybody to look at and investigate. I was not the biggest into crosswords at the time, but it was good to look at. One memorable instance of the class was having my Ra Andrew be a representative from Syria concerning the Civil War in the country and trying to determne soultions for the conflict. We also watched a great documentary called "The Island President" in which the President of the small island chain of the Maldives sught to save his country from climate change that was sinking his islands.

The Green Ball

When I first arrived at CTY, I had brought a green ball wiht me to outdoor activities and before class started to have fun. A volleyball net was on the side of the quad outside Rockefeller and so my hall would end up plaing Volleyball with it. One time during transition to activities, one of the RAs told me to not bring it back on the weekdays. The activity in question was, of course, "Cloud Watching".

Avatar: The Last Airbender

During a rainstorm at any CTY site, students will go into their auditorium and watch programs or play quizzes. That was the case at SouthHadley, but it had gone a bit to the extreme. The first programs that were watched were educational documentaries, but the students wanted mre and so the SRA had turned on Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Everybody loved it and they really, realy wanted to see it again. We had managed to get all the way to the Winter Solstice episodes of Book 1. During a Tennis activity, students were hoping for rain to happen that they had prayed to Katara, who is a waterbender in the show, to make it rain. Suprisingly, it did end up raining with a lovely rainbow in the sky. However, the rain did eventually stop and activities continued, but the memory of A:TLA still lives on.

The Beads

In our hall, Andrew decided to give out special beads for good acts. The maximum you could get (and should get) was two. It would always be a good recognition if he had seen you help somebody or he saw you perform well in class. It would always be announced at the hall meeting who received the beads. I was able to obtain my beads for my birthday and on the last night together we all got one. They still hang around my lanyard everyday to remind me of that good old time.

The Patty Predicament

At Mt. Holyoke, the dining halls were set in the same place as the residential halls. They were very tiny, but had the usual items of juice machines, cereal options and other delectables. In order to get your main course options, they would be displayed right by the chefs who were cooking the food and you would use separate spatulas to retrieve said food.

One day, I had was retrieving my food (a sausage or a patty, I forget which one) when there was no spatula for that section to perceive. I had then used my fork to retrieve the patty. Being the silly 6th grader I was, I had stabbed it on from the prongs of my fork instead of scooping it up.

A chef had raced over to the are and said "Stop!". I was perplexed as he continued saying "What are you doing?!" It had appeared that I did something wrong by trying to get my food. He had said that because I had stabbed the food with the fork I had then "contaminated all the other patties" and that the tray was now "completely useless" and had to be thrown away. It is because of this incident that I always try to use a spatula instead, but did he really have to throw that food out.

The Dances

During the dances at this site, they were held right across the way from Rockefeller at the campus center's lower level. Down in this area was a giant space, one for recreation inside and outside the dance floor. Outside of the dance floor, all of the board games were set up that consisted of games like cards, RISK, Connect Four and it even had its own pool table.

The dancing was something I did not particularly enjoy at the time. I was still one to be shy and nervous when attempting new feats and I did not partake in that action. The other option was to watch a movie, an option that most sites do not have so much anymore. The benefit was that the movie was held in the same building so that it was not a problem. The one I could remember watching was "An Extremely Goofy Movie".

My hallmates were all in on the dances with Mike and Kevin being the best ones. During this crazy time of 2013, one song had sweeped the nation "Gangnam Style". Performed by the K-Pop star PSY, this infectious tune was beloved by everyone, sort of. Coincidentally, two of my hallmates, Tony and Daniel, were from South Korea, They were not amused in having the song be played as they had already heard it plenty of times before.

Thankfully, the last song of the dance was "American Pie". It was not the first that I had heard it because my parents would always play the song on our vacation trips to Vermont. It was an interesting time hearing it during the dances. I never felt it to be a dancing kind of song, but it was one that everyone could rally around and enjoy. This would be the only song that I would dance to until 15.2 when I partook in "Tunak Tunak Tun" at Saratoga.

Saratoga CTY

Saratoga really is an unbelievable campus. Not only does it have a great history as a town, but also some exclusives at the site for CTY. The big one are the town trips, which are awesome. Whether it's Comic Depot, Ben & Jerry's (Vermonsters), or Starbucks (Yes, you heard me), there's something for everyone on the trips.

14.2

Course: International Politics: POLY

Instructors: Rupa and Amanda (TA)

Hallmates: Henry, Duncan, Avi, Greg, Suraag, Chris, Chris, Grayson, Kevin

RA: Mike

15.2

Course: Logic: Principles of Reasoning LOGC

Instructors: Andrew and Evan (TA)

Hallmates: Johnathan, Janpal, David, Tyler, Derek, Daniel, Alvin, Cameron, Henry

RA: Dan

16.2

Course: Fundamentals of Microeconomics: MICO

Instructors: Irakli and Yolanda (TA)

Hallmates: Albert, Kevin, Avi, Ky, Quincy, Janpal, Sachin, Chris, Ryan, Ben, Luke and Adway

RA: Peter

17.2

Course: Philosophy of Mind: MIND

Instructors: Andrew and Olta (TA)

Hallmates: Riik, Peter, Andrew, Dorrian, Kyle, Gabriel, Andrew L., Andrew Q., Edward, Derek, William, Alan, Liam and Eric.

RA: Mike L.

The Last Day

To be continued (2020)....

My Birthday

July 31, 2000. What's so special about that day? Well

• It's my birthday and
• It's on CTY

That's why I normally went to session 2 for CTY. On my birthday I usually got something special from my hall or the site community itself. At Mt. Holyoke, Andrew and all the kids from the hall went into my room and threw paper confetti and then Andrew made them pick it up. Ha! Also at the end of the session, the dining hall made a cake with everyone's name on it that had a birthday during the session.

At Skidmore, Mike gave my cupcakes and he starting spraying silly string at me which, not only got over me, but the wall as well.

Dan's hall actually didn't do much, but the rest of CTY did. I got a Birthday card from Maeve Brammer who then made people sign it and give it to me. It was really nice. Also during the dance (coincidentally on my birthday that year) they all started singing happy birthday to me and I heard someone yell (I think it was Christophe) "Someone pick him up!" Thankfully, that did not happen.

2016 was not the most eventful birthday at CTY. I had not alerted my fellow campers in the days before because that day was also the Town Trip. They would be too focused on Vermonsters at the time, which I could completely understand. WE went all the way to Congress Park and then it started to rain. We headed back to Case Center and waited for about an hour before we could go back to the dorms. I still was able to get celebratory cupcakes from SRA Geoff and enjoy the day.

2017 was one of the best birthdays that I ever had. Being my last year, I made sure to let people know it was my birthday, turning the big 17. It had started with plenty of birthday singing on the quad. I had then gotten a lovely card from Daisy Fernandez and other things. My birthday also fell on the TAPS Frisbee Game. Although we had gotten blown out (8-4, blew a 3-0 lead), it was still a great experience playing in a Student-Staff game. The day ended with night quad and then more celebratory cupcakes which were shared with the entire hall.